By Robin Mines
Four little syllables. One great, big, fat chunk of dread. "Swimsuit season": don't you just hate it? It?s even worse this year, since all that cool, wet weather in May let us continue to hide our pudgy bods underneath long pants and baggy sweaters and lulled us into a false sense of security. Now it's sunny and warm, public near-nakedness is imminent, and all of a sudden our excess poundage has nowhere to hide.

Depressing, huh? But don't throw in the beach towel just yet. I'm freshly back from a fascinating group dinner at the Fish House in Stanley Park, created by executive chef Karen Barnaby, and her low-carb diet could be the divinely delicious answer to all our weight-loss prayers.

From a size 24 to a size 16--sometimes a 14. That's Barnaby's personal success story, and Protein Power by Dr. Michael Eades has been her bible every lost pound of the way. Carbohydrates are bad, protein is good, so the theory goes, and calories are irrelevant. Barnaby's day-to-day, meal-to-meal regime, she says, is "protein and salad, protein and salad, and protein and salad." (She's tried to lose weight and keep it off before, to no avail. "I was on a low-fat diet for eight months," she recalls, "and I thought I?d lose my mind.")

No mashed potatoes? No pasta? No crusty baguette, or risotto, or french fries? Nope, Karen says, but you can have bacon and eggs for breakfast and tiger prawns sauteed in real butter
for lunch and a steak and caesar salad for dinner and still watch the pounds melt away.

There is some debate over just how healthy this high-fat diet is in the long run (you don't need me to wag the finger and tell you to get the okay from your family doctor before you start any kind of weight-loss plan) but I do know that Barnaby looks terrific and feels the same. I also know that throughout that low-carb, Indian-inspired four-course meal I didn't once miss the bread basket. Interested in joining the next low-carb feast? Call the Fish House at 604 681-5532 and get yourself on the list.

Meanwhile, I'm relieved to know that Barnaby's still got her famous signature buttermilk mashed potatoes on the regular Fish House menu and we've got the exclusive recipe for the low-carb soup she served during that thoroughly satisfying dinner. Stay tuned for her low-carb cookbook--and let's hope we all survive swimsuit season while it lasts.

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RECIPE:

Karen Barnaby's Tomato Soup with Coconut Milk

6 cups canned plum tomatoes

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp black mustard seed

1 tsp ground cumin seed

1-1 /2 tsp cinnamon

1-1 /2 tsp ground coriander seed

1 tsp salt

1 13-oz can coconut milk

Puree the tomatoes and sieve to remove the seeds. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and when they pop, add the cumin, coriander and cinnamon. Stir for a moment and add the salt, coconut milk and tomatoes. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

But where do you get "black" mustard seeds, and, if you can't find them, can you use regular mustard seeds?

Indian-inspired: I would love to see your other recipes. I love Indian food.

BTW: Congratulations! It's too bad she had to dig a little at low-carbing. But at least she didn't slam it.

One more comment and I'm done: It's interesting to me that we keep getting recommendations to talk with our doctors before starting any weight-loss regime. If we did that, most of us would never start low-carbing because it would be nixed by our doctors.

But where do you get "black" mustard seeds, and, if you can't find them, can you use regular mustard seeds?

Indian food stores and natural food stores should carry them Deb. They are wonderful stir fried with cauliflower and tomato, They should always be popped in oil first and then the ingredients are added to them. Yellow mustard seeds are OK, but don't have as much nuttiness.

There are a few more Indian inspired recipes in Low-Carb Recipes at the top of the page.